This invention relates generally to fixed racks for bicycle parking, and more particularly to bicycle racks having anti-vandalism and anti-theft features.
Several trends have contributed to the use of bicycles for personal transportation in metropolitan areas. First, increased congestion on heavily traveled roadways may slow travel through cities during working hours. The bicyclist can circumvent crowded highways and main thoroughfares by taking trails and bicycle paths which are closed to motor vehicle traffic. Second, higher density working conditions often result in an increase in working population disproportionate to the available number of automobile parking spaces. The same area of pavement which receives one car can accommodate dozens of bicycles. Third, advancements in bicycle engineering and design have made bicycle commuting more satisfying, and has encouraged recreational bike riding as a family activity.
City planners, eager to encourage the substitution of bicycle traffic for motor vehicle traffic, have aided the growth in bicycle usage by building and refurbishing bicycle paths, and by providing conveniently located bicycle parking structures. However, the popularity of bicycle riding among a diverse population, as well as the advent of higher performance and higher cost bicycles, have made bicycles an appealing target for theft. The decades-long battle between bicyclists and bicycle thieves has seen an escalation in the tools of theft prevention and the tools of theft.
The bicycle thief attacks the weakest link of the connection between the bicycle and the bicycle rack. At one time a light gauge chain passed through the front wheel of the bicycle and secured with a simple combination lock was considered adequate. This precaution, however, was readily circumvented by an inexpensive bolt cutter. Heavy-duty steel bar locks, such as the popular Kryptonite.RTM. bicycle U-lock, manufactured by Kryptonite Corporation, www.kryptonitelock.com, employing rugged steel members and difficult-to-pick locks, have made the connection between the bicycle and the rack a fairly secure one. Undaunted, thieves redirected their efforts to compromising the structure of the rack itself. Small diameter rods and wires in bicycle racks are easy victims to the bolt cutter. Rack designers responded with heavy galvanized steel tube racks two inches in diameter or greater, such as the racks shown in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,098,155; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 409,118; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 408,764; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 408,763; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 367,022; the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
However, even these heavy steel tubes are made easy work of by a low-cost conventional pipe cutter. The modem urban bicycle thief approaches the serpentine tube rack with a readily concealed pipe cutter, which he uses to sever the steel pipe of the rack from its connection to the ground, working rapidly and silently. Once severed, the two sections of pipe are displaced and the bicycle or bicycles, with locks still intact, are loaded onto a waiting truck or van. Once out of public view, the locks may be removed with specialized picks or power saws.
To combat the thief armed with a pipe cutter, racks have been fabricated of square steel tubing which is not susceptible to the rotary pipe cutter. Not only are square steel tubing racks more costly to fabricate, but even this design gambit is not proof against the determined bicycle thief. Advances in compact tool design and energy-dense batteries have resulted in lightweight and portable hand tools with the power once restricted to tools requiring nearby electrical outlets. Especially useful in attacking a square tubular bicycle rack is the portable reciprocating saw, for example of the type manufactured by Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. under the trademark SAWZALL.RTM.. These reciprocating saws, with a 3 to 9 in. long blade, can make short work of a 21/2 in. bicycle rack square tube.
What is needed is a convenient bicycle rack which resists assaults by thieves armed with pipe cutters and reciprocating saws.